Procrastinating, Kingdom Saving, and all other forms of Geekdom

DICO – 24 HOURS PART 2

This was supposed to be an easy job. The boss was going to pay him to knock off a store owner that had done something to piss him off. He didn’t know what the store owner had done and he didn’t care. All he cared about was killing the guy so he could get paid.

It started off so promising too. He walked in and his mark didn’t expect a thing. Just as he was about to pull out his gun, one of the boss’ other men showed up and tried to steal the job from him. After a short fire fight, he managed to chase his rival off, but not before the owner got away.

By then, the police had probably been called, so he grabbed the shotgun the owner kept behind the counter and hoped he could convince the cops that he was an employee that had scared off a robber. He was in the middle of tampering with the store’s security cameras, to erase the footage, when he heard the door open. There were no sirens or lights, so he knew that it wasn’t the cops. Thinking that his rival came back, he turned and fired. Imagine his surprise when he sees that it was a homeless man pretending to be a superhero.

This could work to my advantage, he thought. All he had to do is kill him, claim that he was a customer and the homeless man was trying to rob the place, and that he shot him in self defense. Since he hadn’t taken a shot at the store owner, in fact he told him to duck when his rival came in, he had no doubts the owner would back his story. Then, he’d just have to kill the man later.

All he had to do now was catch the homeless superhero off guard….

If the man with the shotgun had pulled the trigger immediately, DICO would’ve been dead. Instead, he took a moment to admire his deception. By the time the killer fired, DICO had dropped down enough that he missed almost all of the blast. Two pellets of the buck shot grazed his left shoulder. He winced in pain as he hit the ground, but he didn’t complain. It could’ve been a lot worse.

Before he got up, he took a second to calm himself. His moment was finally here. Now was his time to show the world what he could do.

The sound of shells being replaced spurred DICO into action. Leaping to his feet, he reached inside his shirt and grabbed a projectile. He pulled his arm back and heaved it at the killer’s head. The man managed to dodge it. When he recovered, instead of pointing the gun back at DICO, he shot him with a look of confusion. “Did you,” he stuttered, “did you just throw your nipple at me?”

DICO didn’t answer. He let loose his other projectile. The man tried to avoid this one as well, but his incredulity slowed him enough that it hit him in the arm.

“Damn,” he swore. “That hurt. What the hell, man?”

As the killer watched through the holes in the shirt, DICO’s nipples grew back on his body. While they were reforming, the nipples gave off a metallic glint, but they returned to normal color once they had fully formed. The hired gun was so perplexed and disgusted by what he saw that he didn’t even try to move when DICO threw a third nipple at him.

It hit the man right between the eyes with a thud. He rocked backwards for a second before his legs gave out from under him and he crashed hard onto the floor. DICO walked up to the man and kicked the shotgun out of his hand. The hired gun looked up with glazed eyes, not noticing the blood dripping into one of them from gash left by the thrown nipple.

DICO leaned down and punched him to knock him the rest of way out. When that was done, he looked outside. There was still no sign of any flashing lights and no sirens could be heard. He wasn’t sure how long he had been in the store, but he knew it was long enough for the police to arrive.